Jen and me checking out the Cherry Blossoms in D.C.!
Hey everyone,
I haven't posted in about a week and a half, so I thought I'd better give you an update.
First, the music stuff: I am in the process of both remastering old tunes and writing new ones. In fact, I have a list of two tunes to remaster and nine tunes to finish writing, which is a lot of stuff. You might think that I may have spread myself too thin and to that I say you might be correct, haha.
The dilemma is one that isn't old; namely, I'm caught between wanting to finish up tunes and churn out new ideas. Finishing is two-dimensional problem that I imagine many of us aspiring artists have: one, I always ask myself, 'Is this even worth finishing?', and two, I sometimes feel like I'm spending too much time on one idea rather than creating fresh ones, which makes me think of number one's question again. The answer to that question, by the way, is 'YES' 95% of the time simply because I need to practice finishing writing as well as the whole production gig. I refuse to abandon these tunes even though I get scatterbrained and succumb to writing new ideas instead often. The answer to the second? Simply get better and faster, which is done by finishing tunes, and stay focused. And you may think that have a list of nine tunes to finish would warrant me saying enough is enough, leading me to blast through finishing one or two, but no... no, that doesn't work; no urge to create new things is assuaged.
But hey, the remastered version of "Fanfare and Jubilee" is coming along. Check out what it sounds like at the end of today. Lots of work still needs to be done, of course, including adjusting dynamics, volume levels, articulations, and more, but I think you'll like it.
NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Actually, the remastered version you hear below is the final version because I just replaced the old file on SoundCloud!
Original:
Remastered:
As for new stuff, one point of note is that I'm trying to write tunes that are a little longer, have more space, and are less dependent on being driven by one stand-out melody. I've been listening to some film scores recently (Lord of the Rings and Jurassic Park, to name a couple) for some inspiration. Not all of the new stuff is like that, but it's important to have a grasp on writing more film-y sounding scores for video games these days (not to mention, it's good practice if I ever get the chance to write for film or TV).
As for non-music stuff, I'm trying to get out a little more and trying to stop myself from snacking all day long (I have neither the metabolism nor the funds). It's hard to get inspired when you're sitting in a room all day, and while baseball season is awesome and I love watching it at night, it doesn't really help churn the creative butter. So, I like to go take walks during the day (the weather has been gorgeous recently) and I've been trying to do some other activities. A few examples: as you saw above, Jen and I went to see the cherry blossoms last Wednesday with her coworker and her coworker's son, which was really nice; we started playing Sunday night softball on a team that is half comprised of people we don't know; and I started a nine-week "Adult Beginner's Gymnastics" course last night (yup, and it's pretty cool).
That's pretty much it for now! I hope to be done with the remaster soon and will have some new stuff for you to check out shortly therefore. Until then...!
